Home Office

Biometrics

Lord Scriven: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the recommendation in the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee's report Current and future uses of biometric data and technologies (6th Report, Session 2014–15) that a comprehensive, cross-departmental forensics and biometrics strategy be published no later than December 2015, why such a strategy has not yet been published.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: The Biometrics Strategy is in its final stages of completion and we expect to publish it in due course. The Forensic Science Strategy was published on 11 March 2016.

Ministry of Justice

Judiciary: Equality

Lord Ouseley: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of progress towards achieving a more diverse judiciary in the last six years.

Lord Ouseley: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many judges have been appointed in each of the past six years; and how many of those were (1) from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, (2) women, and (3) disabled.

Lord Ouseley: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what resources they have provided for diversity and equality initiatives in the judiciary; and what assessment they have made of the success of those initiatives to date.

Lord Ouseley: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to support the development and introduction of pre-appointment training for those from under-represented groups seeking judicial appointments.

Lord Keen of Elie: The Government is committed to improving judicial diversity and co-ordinates this effort through the Judicial Diversity Forum, a cross-stakeholder group with representatives from the Ministry of Justice, Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), the judiciary and legal profession. The Judicial Diversity Forum replaced the Judicial Diversity Taskforce in 2014 as the body responsible for encouraging judicial diversity; it has implemented a number of schemes to help improve judicial diversity. Recent examples include the 100 plus Diversity and Community Relations Judges doing invaluable work with the community to expel myths about working for the judiciary and interact with schools, universities and the legal professions. There is also a Judicial Mentoring Scheme where judges volunteer to be mentors; providing invaluable advice and guidance to those from under-represented groups seeking a judicial appointment or those wishing to progress in their judicial career. Data on judicial appointments are published regularly on gov.uk. The below figures show how many candidates were recommended by the JAC for judicial appointment in each of the past six years and how many of those were (1) from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, (2) women and (3) disabled. As these figures are JAC recommendations, they may include a small number of candidates that do not go on to be appointed. 2010- 759 candidates were recommended out of which 75 (10%) were from BAME, 309 (41%) were women and 41 (5%) were disabled.2011- 894 candidates were recommended out of which 91 (10%) were from BAME backgrounds, 406 (45%) were women and 34 (4%) were disabled.2012- 371 candidates were recommended out of which 48 (13%) were from BAME backgrounds, 152 (41%) were women and 22 (6%) were disabled.2013- 572 candidates were recommended out of which 38 (7%) were from BAME backgrounds, 303 (53%) were women and 81 (14%) were disabled.2014- 312 candidates were recommended out of which 40 (13%) were from BAME backgrounds, 134 (43%) were women and 11 (4%) were disabled.2015- 319 candidates were recommended out of which 28 (9%) were from BAME backgrounds, 143 (45%) were women and 10 (3%) were disabled.The Government acknowledges that within the judiciary there is an under-representation of women, those who are disabled and those from a BAME background. However, recent statistics show some improvement which suggests ongoing diversity initiatives, co-ordinated by the Forum, are beginning to have an impact: 1) 12% of judges across Courts and Tribunals under 50 years of age are from a BAME background (around 14% of the UK population are from BAME groups).2) JAC Official Statistics from April 2015 to March 2016 showed women made up 45% of those recommended for appointment overall (140 of 308 recommendations).

Prisons

Baroness Corston: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the consultation process for the prison sale and building programme.

Lord Keen of Elie: On 9 November 2015, the government announced a £1.3bn investment to reform and modernise the prison estate to make it more efficient, safer and focused on supporting prisoner rehabilitation. As part of this programme the Ministry of Justice will build new prison places while selling ageing, inefficient prisons to free up land for new homes.These new prisons will be designed to enable prisoners to engage with the educational and other rehabilitative services they need in order to turn their lives around and re-join their communities. We are in the process of finding sites for new prisons, looking at our own and other government departments’ land holdings, contacting Local Authorities and considering other available sites. No decisions have yet been made on the locations of the new prisons. At the time we indicate our intention to proceed with a site we will carry out a public engagement event in the local area, working with the local authority and others to progress the site through the planning permission process. Following a decision to close a prison and it subsequently being decommissioned the Ministry of Justice will prepare the site for disposal. The Ministry of Justice will work closely with the local authority and others, on future options for the site. Once a decision is made, the MoJ and its advisors will engage with the market and other stakeholders. No decisions have yet been made about prison sales.

Community Rehabilitation Companies

Baroness Corston: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the contract value allocated to each Community Rehabilitation Company and what percentage is spent on direct front line delivery staff as opposed to contract management staff.

Lord Keen of Elie: The anticipated value of contracts for Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 4 February 2015.CRCs are currently undergoing transformation including changes to their workforce. The proportion of cost spent on direct front line staff in the final operating model for each CRC will be different to the proportion of cost at the point of contract award and which will continue to vary from month to month until transformation is complete.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Tourism

Lord Pendry: To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the Inter-Ministerial Group last met, and what conclusions were made about establishing the Tourism Industry Council.

Lord Ashton of Hyde: In 2015, the membership of the Tourism Industry Council was refreshed and the meeting format revised, so that the Council's discussions inform those of the newly established inter-Ministerial group on Tourism. The last meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Group took place in February.

Tourism

Lord Pendry: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made to ensure that the aim to distribute inbound tourism across the UK, as set out in the Five Point Plan, will be met.

Lord Ashton of Hyde: The Five Point Plan on Tourism encourages visitors to travel beyond the capital. In 2015, the South East, South West, West Midlands and the North East of England saw both international visits and spend growing at a faster rate than in London. The £40m Discover England Fund aims to further encourage international visitors to explore right across the country and the first tranche of successful bids will be announced shortly.

Swimming

Lord Pendry: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the findings of the 2016 UK Swimming Industry Report that the number of swimming sites is in decline, what steps they intend to take to reduce that decline.

Lord Ashton of Hyde: In the last five years 277 new fit-for-purpose pools have been built in locations which best serve the needs of people in the local community. The number of swimming pools and amount of pool space has increased since 2007. Sport England is supporting over 80 local authorities to develop a strategic approach to facility provision, making sure that community facilities like swimming pools are in the right location and are sustainable As Sport England moves towards the implementation of its new strategy, 'Towards an Active Nation', it will be working with partners across the swimming industry to explore how to get more people swimming.

Video on Demand: Hearing Impairment

Baroness Randerson: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the progress of broadcasters towards increasing the provision of access services to video-on-demand content for viewers with hearing loss, and what steps they plan to take to ensure an increase of such provision.

Lord Ashton of Hyde: In recent years the provision of access services on video on demand content has increased according to the attached 2015 Authority for Television on Demand report.The evidence in this report is supported by dialogue with broadcasters, content providers and platform operators, who fed back to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in autumn 2015. Ofcom, the regulator for video on demand services, is reviewing how to improve the provision of access services on video on demand services.



Provision of Video on Demand Access Services 2015
(PDF Document, 737.41 KB)

Department for Work and Pensions

Social Security Benefits

Baroness Thomas of Winchester: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have made an assessment of the amount of benefits to which people are entitled that go unclaimed.

Lord Freud: On 28th June 2016 the Department for Work and Pensions published the report “Income-related benefits: Estimates of take-up in 2014/15”. The full report has been published online. For Great Britain, the following estimates are available for 2014/15:Pension Credit: Up to £3.1 billion of available Pension Credit went unclaimed;Housing Benefit: Up to £4.6 billion of available Housing Benefit went unclaimed;Jobseeker’s Allowance (Income-based): Up to £2.4 billion of available Jobseeker’s Allowance (Income-based) went unclaimed.Income Support and Employment and Support Allowance (Income-related): Up to £2.9 billion of available Income Support and Employment and Support Allowance (Income-related) went unclaimed.

Pensions

Lord Myners: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to change the discount rate used to calculate the funding status of defined benefit pension schemes.

Lord Freud: The legislation governing the funding of defined benefit occupational pensions schemes is designed to be flexible, allowing the trustees or managers of these schemes to determine which method and assumptions are to be used in their schemes technical provisions. A number of factors come into play in scheme funding decisions and the Pensions Regulator provides useful guidance for trustees in its codes and supporting guidance and statements. In determining the discount rate to be used, trustees must act prudently taking into account the yield on assets held by the scheme and / or the market redemption yields on Government bonds or other high-quality bonds. There is no standard actuarial method and set of assumptions that must be used, however, should the Regulator have concerns about a funding plan it can intervene.

Personal Independence Payment

Baroness Manzoor: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, of the people previously claiming Disability Living Allowance at the higher component of (1) mobility, or (2) care, how many have been assessed for (a) the higher rate, or (b) the standard rate, of (i) the mobility component, or (ii) the daily living component, of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in each year since PIP was introduced.

Lord Freud: The latest available data on personal independence payment (PIP) registrations, clearances and claims in payment for both new claims and reassessed claims (for those previously in receipt of disability living allowance (DLA)) is published on Gov.UK. In particular, breakdowns of reassessed claims in payment by type and rate of awards can be found from Stat-Xplore, which is a tool for exploring DWP’s statistics. The Department does not have verified data on the number of DLA claimants who have had their award changed as a result of the move to PIP. We intend to provide more detailed breakdowns of DLA to PIP reassessment outcomes in due course. The Department is working to guidelines set by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure we are able to publish statistics that meet high quality standards at the earliest opportunity.

Motability

Baroness Barker: To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the Motability Scheme funds cars, powerchairs and mobility scooters but does not extend to cycles.

Lord Freud: Motability is an independent charitable organisation wholly responsible for the Motability scheme. Operational decisions, such as what types of vehicles the scheme should provide, are for Motability to make. They can be contacted at Director of Motability, Motability, Warwick House, Roydon Road, Harlow, Essex, CM19 5PX.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Bees

Baroness Kennedy of Cradley: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many species of bumblebee there are in the UK, and what assessment they have made of the challenges faced by those species.

Baroness Kennedy of Cradley: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the challenges facing honeybees in the UK.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: There are 25 species of bumblebee resident in the UK, including the short-haired bumblebee which is currently being re-introduced under Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme. In 2014 Defra published independent research on the status of pollinators in the UK. The study identified an overall decline in wild bee diversity over the last 50 years. This concluded that bumblebee species that have become less widespread are associated with the loss of flower-rich habitat, driven by changes in agricultural land use and urbanisation. Both Environmental Stewardship and now the new Countryside Stewardship schemes fund the provision of food and habitat for wild pollinators. The new scheme in particular incorporates a Wild Pollinator and Farm Wildlife package which provides year-round food, winter shelter and nesting places essential for pollinators. Although honeybees face many of these environmental pressures their population is driven by the number of beekeepers willing and able to keep bees. There is some evidence that the number of beekeepers, and therefore the number of honey bees, may have increased since 2009 as more keepers are registered on the National Bee Unit’s BeeBase and with beekeeping associations.